It's FMV Friday - Part 1: Let's Learn About Ghosts With Christopher Lee

Explaining The 1990s to 2000s Interactive Encyclopedia: The Worst Part Of The Multimedia Era Of Games

It's time to get our hands dirty looking at the drecks of multimedia!

With Mitch and company lurching closer to exploring the questionable works of Parroty Interactive, following his romp through Pyst, a new floodgate may be opening as Giant Bomb delves into various forms of video game-based torture brought to you from the world of multimedia entertainment. For those familiar with this era of games, these works are typically from the mid-to-late 1990s and all follow a distinct mold or template that seems almost alien to those who did not grow up during the Dot-com Bubble. The rise of the multimedia video game, which used in-game video, FMV actors, and extensive text presented in an encyclopedia format, was rapid, and its crash was inevitable. I have pressed those who attended E3 back in the day about this very topic. Multimedia games were all the rage and headlined major gaming conventions for years, and then they all disappeared without so much as a peep. I have always wondered when the multimedia stalwarts finally threw in the towel and realized their works, at best, presented an evolutionary dead end for the gaming industry. Marino has informed me that, for the most part, the early 2000s were a time when multimedia FMV games were on the decline at mainstream gaming conferences. However, several companies, especially those in Europe and Japan, continued to develop edutainment games that maintained many of their key attributes well after that.

Like most gaming fads, the rise of multimedia entertainment has a fairly indisputable point of origin. Although it is no longer available today, Microsoft Encarta was a big deal in the 1990s. It shared tomes of knowledge through tightly edited videos that accompanied hours upon hours of narrated text, keeping kids glued to their computer screens, with parents happy, thinking they were instilling something of educational value during their child's screen time. Encarta was widely adopted by public schools and libraries, leading to an existential crisis in multiple print publications that viewed it as a massive threat to their future. Many of those very print publications and publishing houses would then go on to digitize entire volumes of books, and some went one step further, opening up video game studios to flood the market with similar Encarta-like products. By hook or by crook, Encarta, along with Myst, was considered proof positive that multimedia was the future of video games. Dozens of companies, including SegaSoft, Sony Imagesoft, and Sanctuary Woods, among others, invested millions on the premise that interactive multimedia was a viable future endpoint for video games. However, it was those book publishers that really drove this gaming bubble economy. McGraw-Hill and Simon & Schuster were the clearest examples of that, with even Scholastic Magazine dabbling in these sorts of games. Some of these works went the distance in trying to graft whole new gameplay ideas or mechanics onto FMV cutscenes or encyclopedia pages, whereas others were shameless cash grabs.

Luckily, Christopher Lee remains as stellar as you'd expect!

So, what if I checked out and discussed the most obscure versions of this sort of game? We might discuss some of the gems of this medium throughout this series, but I'll be honest that I'm primarily starting this special to look at the worst of the worst in multimedia games. Did you know Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet had a multimedia video game adaptation, and would it surprise you to know it is goddamn awful? Or how about The Braveheart: Interactive CD-ROM, where we play concentration to unlock behind-the-scenes featurettes that would have been best fit for a DVD Director's Cut? There are good examples of multimedia in gaming, but these treasures are few and far between, and the dreck of multimedia is far more common. Still, these games are forgotten relics of their time, with most being incredibly finicky to run on modern technology, primarily due to their early support for Microsoft's Windows NT architecture. You can get a few to work in DOSBox, but most require you to adjust compatibility settings and set up virtual machines, which I won't cover or detail in this blog.

What Is Ghosts (1994)?

Sure, these girls are absolutely not jumping around for fun and attention.

Ghosts is a game from a one-time video game studio, Media Design Interactive. In it, you explore Hobbs Manor, a fictitious location that the game claims to be the most haunted house in North America. Aiding you in your exploration of the manor is Doctor Marcus Grimalkin, portrayed by Christopher Lee, who introduces the themes of each room in the building and serves as the game's narrator during sequences that relay spooky ghost stories. Nonetheless, Dr. Grimalkin encourages you to explore the building, hoping you foster a deeper understanding of the paranormal, and asks you to remain open-minded about evidence that ghosts and poltergeists do indeed exist in the real world. From a gameplay perspective, Ghosts' rooms fall into two categories. The first are the rooms that feature interviews with supposed paranormal "experts" and slideshows of their "proof" that ghosts really exist. To initiate one of these sequences, you'll need to scan articles of furniture or wall fixtures for interactables, which often take the form of video tapes, picture frames, or diaries/journals. When reviewing one of the game's "educational" multimedia endeavors, you are either looking at a slideshow of static images, where a paranormal expert narrates what the images supposedly show, or you're watching a video player in which the game's producers conduct their own interviews. The video player isn't of the highest fidelity, and the lack of interactivity definitely made some of the video discussions absolutely dreadful to get through.

The second type of room is entirely different in theme, as they are connected to famous ghost stories. As mentioned earlier, Christopher Lee narrates these as if they are audiobooks, and he puts in a clinic. Not only does he masterfully use his inflections and intonations to make the stories as compelling as possible, but you really get a sense that he enjoyed his role in this game. With a lot of multimedia games that advertise the inclusion of a famous actor, you can tell they're awkwardly pantomiming in front of a green screen and are not comfortable with what the game's producers requested of them. Not so with Ghosts, because Christopher Lee remains in character and is invested in everything he's saying. On top of that, the ghost stories are slightly interesting in that they are slideshows with reenactors with quaint but involved sets and sequences. While the results are comical, thanks to the reenactors' overacting, they are immediately more compelling and engaging than anything you see or process during the interviews with ghost hunters and parapsychologists.

Be warned, most of this game does involve watching video through a tiny multimedia player.

You have free movement in this 3D-rendered home, but it operates much like Myst, in that your movements are dictated by how you are facing and where you click on the screen. Looking at the game's advertising, it claimed to have "over 90 minutes of specially filmed video," and I have no reason to suspect they are lying. Some of the interviews are short snippets, while others are full, ten- to twelve-minute conversations. To make your life easier, interactables will glow green when you hover your mouse cursor over them to suggest they have audio to share, and unlike some of the interactive encyclopedias from this era, most of the game is narrated, with you rarely needing to read text without any visual or audio supports. Nevertheless, the gameplay is sparse. As I'll review, there's a slight attempt at storytelling, and there's an alternate B-plot involving Dr. Grimalkin, which you can miss if you are not careful, but for the most part, you are just clicking around in rooms and hoping something starts playing or speaking to you. The few puzzles available usually involve clicking on objects to play melodies or applying collectibles to different locked doors or cabinets. Calling Ghosts a "game" is being incredibly charitable.

Poe Or No?

Oh, double exposure... funny how modern digital cameras have led to fewer ghosts like these.

What do I mean by the term "Poe" in this context? In this case, I'm referencing Poe's Law, which posits that satirical expressions of extremism are often indistinguishable from genuine ones. In the world of skepticism, not the kind that denies climate change, calling something a "Poe" means I'm unsure whether someone is presenting their claims honestly, or if the person in question is a self-parody or aware of how ridiculous their claims are. Also, I want to delineate those who are "true believers" and those who are hoping to financially exploit people in hopes of making a quick buck.

In the case of Ghost, its developer was short-lived, as Media Design Interactive created this title and then developed a Windows 95 port of Gazillionaire. The developer either ceased to exist or was sold to McGraw-Hill's gaming division at the time, known as McGraw-Hill Home Interactive. I suspect the latter is the case, considering Ghost's producer, Philip Nash, and many of his employees went on to make a similarly themed edutainment game around pseudoscience called "Weird: Truth is Stranger than Fiction" under McGraw-Hill's gaming label. Weird is something I may check out in the future, as it is themed around unexplained phenomena and legends, such as sea serpents and other mythological creatures like the Loch Ness monster. Regardless, it still seems like Ghost's developer found a niche for a bit, creating games centered around the supposedly "unexplainable" without becoming deeply embedded in the community that associates with these sorts of beliefs. That to me makes them a low-level Poe.

Then there's Christopher Lee, a man who was undoubtedly not a Poe. Christopher Lee genuinely believed in ghosts, magic, the practices of the occult, and even certain parts of witchcraft. He was introduced to the occult thanks to his close association with British occult author Dennis Wheatley and notoriously stated in an interview at the University College Dublin that people should stay away from black magic because "you lose your soul." What often gets lost in the mix is that during that very interview, Lee corrected the record, stating that the claim he owned 20,000 books related to the occult was a giant myth. No matter, the guy was absolutely metal! He murdered a shit ton of Nazi's during World War II, loved the horror genre, and even made metal music and albums well into his nineties. You can tell he absolutely enjoyed reading the stories that he narrated in Ghosts and loved his role in the game. There are times when you can feel the warmth of his passion for the subject, even if it is complete hokum, and that means he passes the authenticity test by my standards.

Sometimes the evidence involves you listening to cassette tapes with zero pictoral supports.

That leaves the panel of "experts" in Ghosts; the major ones being: Susan Blackmore (Parapsychologist), Tony Cornell (Investigator), Maurice Grosse (Poltergeist Investigator), John Nuttall (Catholic Priest & Exorcist), and Robin Furman (A LITERAL GODDAMN "GHOST HUNTER"). Susan Blackmore is the designated skeptic who questions the authenticity of all of the claims made by the ghost hunters and parapsychologists. The fact that the game even has her explain the concept of double exposure and camera quirks alongside people who claim there is photographic evidence of ghosts is bonkers, because she absolutely eviscerates the ghost believers in cold blood. Fun fact: I have seen Blackmore speak publicly, and she maintains that she was far too generous in the 90s to believers in the occult and is now much more aggressive in calling out dubious parapsychologists as either dangerous or a sign of why critical thinking needs to be taught in public education. Tony Cornell is a fascinating inclusion because he stands as an essential but incredibly flawed figure in the UK skeptical community. Cornell was an avid "debunker" and welcomed paranormal supporters to send him anything, and he'd tell them if they were onto something or if they were wrong. However, he also personally believed in ghosts and argued in favor of telepathy being a real thing. The quote that most often comes to mind when his name is mentioned is that of the 800 cases he investigated, he felt that twenty percent were difficult to explain; however, he always maintained that there were a handful that were genuinely paranormal. The fact that he did think a sliver of the supernatural was real makes him a dubious skeptic to include in something like Ghosts, but one that makes sense given who the game was sold to. Nonetheless, neither of these two are Poes.

Yes, that is indeed a ghost-killing gun. This thing goes places.

That leaves us with Maurice Grosse, John Nuttall, and Robin Furman. Given that John Nuttall is a Catholic Priest ordained to perform exorcisms, I'm hesitant to call him a Poe. Now, I will point out that it's really SOMETHING that the victims of paranormal attacks in the past were overwhelmingly women, a demographic whose struggles with mental health continue to be viewed as "hysteria," with that being very much the case when Ghosts came out in the mid-90s. Nevertheless, a Catholic priest maintaining that ghosts are real and they sometimes need to break out the Holy Water to ward them away doesn't come across as inauthentic. Maurice Grosse, on the other hand, is a bit different. Grosse was one of the big promoters of the Enfield poltergeist incident and claimed to have hundreds of recordings showing that the girls at the center of the incident were victims of a demonic force. Skeptic Joe Nickell brandished Grosse's evidence as "credulous." More humorously, Nickell had a professional ventriloquist, Ray Alan, examine the girls at the heart of the controversy, and had Alan watch them as they claimed an evil spirit was possessing them. This ended with Alan maintaining that they were not skilled at making funny voices and stated to the press that the girls "obviously loved all the attention they got." Even after his evidence was debunked time and again, Grosse continued to maintain that everything was perfect and that he had irrefutable proof that ghosts were real. Grosse most likely was a dyed-in-the-wool true believer rather than a full-on Poe.

Robin Furman, on the other hand, is incredible. Furman claimed that he invented an LED-shooting gun that "kills" ghosts and that people who are worried about ghosts haunting their homes should hire him to exterminate their poltergeists. He even called his group, I SHIT YOU NOT, "Ghostbusters UK!" That's not a joke; he actually tried to sell his ghostbusting services to real people! If that's not a Poe, then I don't know what is.

How Bad Does This Blur The Lines Of Being A "Video Game?"

The ghost stories as told by Christopher Lee are absolute highlights in this pseudoscience echo chamber.

I mentioned earlier that Ghosts has an odd B-plot, which reveals more about Christopher Lee's character and contains more traditional video game trappings. To unlock secret rooms and learn more about Dr. Grimalkin, there are a handful of furnishings in the mansion that you need to click on to collect various items that are then applied to locked doors or puzzles. I'm being generous in how I use the term "puzzle," mind you, because there's only one that leaps out to me in the traditional sense, and that involves you clicking on a variety of wine bottles to spell the word "GHOST." When you do this, you unlock a trap door that reveals that Dr. Grimalkin was a poltergeist all along. Beyond that, the secret rooms are overwhelmingly the rooms that contain additional ghost stories told by Christopher Lee, and despite my best efforts, there was one room or door that I couldn't figure out how to unlock. Regardless, I had gotten my fill of the game by then, and my almost exhaustive playthrough of Ghosts clocked in at around three and a half hours. I only took as long as I did because I spent a reasonable amount of time figuring out how to unlock that last door.

Unsurprisingly, Ghosts has absolutely no replay value. The audio clips and slideshows are identical across playthroughs, and the unlocks are not entirely compelling unless you enjoy ghost stories or learning about the paranormal. Like almost every work of multimedia gaming, Ghosts is a "one and done" affair, but with fewer warts. Christopher Lee is a delight, and while I wasn't compelled by any of the arguments or evidence presented by the game's parapsychologists, I have to give the game itself some credit. All of its footage appears to be original and isn't ripped from a pre-existing television show, a shortcoming we will encounter in the future. The presentation of the game's information isn't particularly stimulating. Still, it does attempt to present information in a multitude of ways and mostly avoids having you stare blankly at text with no audio or visual support. Production was undeniable put into Ghosts, so I'm not prepared to call it the bottom of the barrel. Furthermore, unlike most pro-paranormal works, the game contains a handful of skeptics who primarily use their appearance to call bullshit on everything true believers attempt to say is irrefutable proof.

And sometimes you just look at glowing pictures of people as they tell you the crazy shit they have seen. This game is all over the place!

Nonetheless, it's subpar shovelware and not worth revisiting unless you really want to relish in incredibly outdated arguments on why ghosts exist. I was rolling in laughter when the usual suspects appeared, with experts referencing old-timey photos that are clearly double-exposure flaws or floating orbs in home video recordings. And goddamn, the moment when Furman pulled out his ghost-killing LED gun, I'm not going to lie, I was howling in laughter. That might well be the dumbest clown shit I have seen this whole year, and that's saying something. But outside of that moment, it was one sarcastic eye-roll or loud sigh after another, and I feel like I hit my emotional limit at the 90-minute mark. There was way more bad science and bullcrap in this "game" than I could have ever foreseen. But here's a VOD of me playing the game if you are interested: